Owner to Sue U.S. for Sudan Factory Attack

A Saudi businessman who claims to own the pharmaceutical plant in Sudan destroyed in a missile attack last August is preparing to sue the United States for damages, his American lawyer said Friday.

Salah Idris, whose lawyer says he owned the Shifa factory near Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, will sue in a U.S. court unless the Clinton administration agrees to compensate him and unfreeze his assets in American banks, attorney John Scanlon said.

Scanlon said Idris is seeking $30 million in damages.

The administration accuses Idris of having business ties with Osama bin Laden, whom U.S. officials blame for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa. Idris denies any connection with Bin Laden. After the bombing, a presidential order froze about $28 million Idris has in U.S. banks overseas, Scanlon said.

President Clinton ordered the attack in retaliation for the bombings, earlier in August, of the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. A suspected Bin Laden stronghold in Afghanistan also was struck.